In a Windows environment,

say I have a bunch of photographs stored on directories...

suppose I want to store the photos and give them attributes such that

I could retreive subsets of them using different filters on those

attributes in a flexible, 'relational' way...

is there currently any solution | method | common practice for doing

this?

assume I know nothing

-Jim

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Jim Charter wrote:
> is there currently any solution | method | common practice for doing

I have heard very good things about a product called "ThumbsPlus" a 
while back. You might want to look into that. It was cheap enough for a 
friend to buy it for me without me asking. (Never actually installed it, 
tho.)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Jim Charter escribió:
> In a Windows environment,
> 
> say I have a bunch of photographs stored on directories...
> 
> suppose I want to store the photos and give them attributes such that
> 
> I could retreive subsets of them using different filters on those
> 
> attributes in a flexible, 'relational' way...
> 
> is there currently any solution | method | common practice for doing
> 
> this?
> 
> assume I know nothing
> 
> -Jim

I'm about to write a database-based application for the family holiday 
pics. Maybe even something web-based on the LAN so that my sister can 
add the tags when she's bored.

Post a reply to this message

Jim Charter <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote:
> In a Windows environment,
>
> say I have a bunch of photographs stored on directories...
>
> suppose I want to store the photos and give them attributes such that
>
> I could retreive subsets of them using different filters on those
>
> attributes in a flexible, 'relational' way...
>
> is there currently any solution | method | common practice for doing
>
> this?
>
> assume I know nothing
>
> -Jim

Is this something like what you're looking for?...
http://www.albumburger.com/en/index.asp

I hope it helps.

Best Regards,
Mike C.

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Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> I'm about to write a database-based application for the family holiday 
> pics. Maybe even something web-based on the LAN so that my sister can 
> add the tags when she's bored.

I did one (a while ago) that stored the information in parallel ".info" 
files, and from which you could generate a whole web site to put on a 
CD. You're welcome to it, if you want. :-)

There's also "JAlbum", which is free and apparently stores the comments 
in a ID3-like tag in the JPEG file directly.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> Jim Charter wrote:
>> is there currently any solution | method | common practice for doing
> 
> I have heard very good things about a product called "ThumbsPlus" a 
> while back. You might want to look into that. It was cheap enough for a 
> friend to buy it for me without me asking. (Never actually installed it, 
> tho.)

I use ThumbsPlus, but not for its database feature.  It's just not 
practical when it only gets stored on a file local to a particular 
computer and you have over 200,000 images to tag.  And while you can add 
information in the file itself with Explorer or such, it does change the 
filedate, making *that* information irrelevant (always interesting to 
check out the earliest images in whatever subset of your collection).

-- 
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.digitalartsuk.com

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GFA dpu- s: a?-- C++(++++) U P? L E--- W++(+++)>$
N++ o? K- w(+) O? M-(--) V? PS+(+++) PE(--) Y(--)
PGP-(--) t* 5++>+++++ X+ R* tv+ b++(+++) DI
D++(---) G(++) e*>++ h+ !r--- !y--
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

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Mike the Elder wrote:
> Jim Charter <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote:
> 
>>In a Windows environment,
>>
>>say I have a bunch of photographs stored on directories...
>>
>>suppose I want to store the photos and give them attributes such that
>>
>>I could retreive subsets of them using different filters on those
>>
>>attributes in a flexible, 'relational' way...
>>
>>is there currently any solution | method | common practice for doing
>>
>>this?
>>
>>assume I know nothing
>>
>>-Jim
> 
> 
> Is this something like what you're looking for?...
> http://www.albumburger.com/en/index.asp
> 
> I hope it helps.
> 
> Best Regards,
> Mike C.
> 
> 
> 
Thanks but no, this is a pleasing little app. but too limited. 
Specifically there is not a way to assign attributes other than the 
categories the album provides, also only resolutions up to 1024 are 
supported.  Probably I don't really know what I am looking for.  Better 
would be some sort of ad hoc way to store attributes about an existing 
directory and have that directory be retrievable as a hyper-link.  Not 
sure if such a thing would be possible.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> 
>> I'm about to write a database-based application for the family holiday 
>> pics. Maybe even something web-based on the LAN so that my sister can 
>> add the tags when she's bored.
> 
> 
> I did one (a while ago) that stored the information in parallel ".info" 
> files, and from which you could generate a whole web site to put on a 
> CD. You're welcome to it, if you want. :-)

Not sure what you are saying but it sounds closer to my purpose. 
Parallel .info files?

> 
> There's also "JAlbum", which is free and apparently stores the comments 
> in a ID3-like tag in the JPEG file directly.
> 

This looks promising

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> Jim Charter escribió:
> 
>> In a Windows environment,
>>
>> say I have a bunch of photographs stored on directories...
>>
>> suppose I want to store the photos and give them attributes such that
>>
>> I could retreive subsets of them using different filters on those
>>
>> attributes in a flexible, 'relational' way...
>>
>> is there currently any solution | method | common practice for doing
>>
>> this?
>>
>> assume I know nothing
>>
>> -Jim
> 
> 
> I'm about to write a database-based application for the family holiday 
> pics. Maybe even something web-based on the LAN so that my sister can 
> add the tags when she's bored.
How would it work?

Post a reply to this message

I use Adobe Photoshop Album, where I can put tags on photos, and combine 
different tags to filter them. It is easy and flexible. But it is not 
free (and it seems Adobe is no longer selling it, but photoshop elements 
only...).

Otherwise, is not google Picassa able to do what you need ?


Thibaut



Jim Charter a écrit :
> In a Windows environment,
> 
> say I have a bunch of photographs stored on directories...
> 
> suppose I want to store the photos and give them attributes such that
> 
> I could retreive subsets of them using different filters on those
> 
> attributes in a flexible, 'relational' way...
> 
> is there currently any solution | method | common practice for doing
> 
> this?
> 
> assume I know nothing
> 
> -Jim

Post a reply to this message

Jim Charter wrote:
> In a Windows environment,
> say I have a bunch of photographs stored on directories...
> suppose I want to store the photos and give them attributes such that
> I could retreive subsets of them using different filters on those
> attributes in a flexible, 'relational' way...

Well now, for about £8,000 you can buy a copy of the Oracle database 
product. This enables you to store each image in a row of a big table, 
and you can then cross-reference any kind of metadata you desire in the 
usual relational-database mannar. For an extra few £100, you can get a 
product that will enable you to build a HTML interface to query all this 
data in a flexible way.

...I mean, if you're looking for the most OTT solution available, this 
has got to be fairly close. ;-)

On a slightly *less* insane note, you could probably build some kind of 
PHP thing where you submit photos, it gives each one a unique name, puts 
it in a folder somewhere, and stores some metadata about it in a MySQL 
database and gives you a web interface to query it. In fact, heck, 
somebody has probably already made such a thing somewhere...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Jim Charter wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
>> Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
>>
>>> I'm about to write a database-based application for the family 
>>> holiday pics. Maybe even something web-based on the LAN so that my 
>>> sister can add the tags when she's bored.
>>
>>
>> I did one (a while ago) that stored the information in parallel 
>> ".info" files, and from which you could generate a whole web site to 
>> put on a CD. You're welcome to it, if you want. :-)
> 
> Not sure what you are saying but it sounds closer to my purpose. 
> Parallel .info files?

vacation/mexico/MomAndDad.jpg will have it's tagging information stored 
in vacation/mexico/MomAndData.info

It's a bit clunky, but not too bad, and has the advantage that you can 
go and reuse the information elsewhere, since it's a trivial format.

Plus, it has features like "keep this image, but don't include it in the 
index pages" and so on.  Sorts by date and by name (IIRC), and things 
like that.

Also used by a server I built that basically did what Flickr does, only 
on a small scale. Lets you upload images, comment on them, etc.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Jim Charter wrote:
> In a Windows environment,
> 
> say I have a bunch of photographs stored on directories...
> 
> suppose I want to store the photos and give them attributes such that
> 
> I could retreive subsets of them using different filters on those
> 
> attributes in a flexible, 'relational' way...
> 
> is there currently any solution | method | common practice for doing
> 
> this?
> 
> assume I know nothing
> 
> -Jim

google picasa is what I use to keep my photos...  but I don't know if it 
is what youa re after.


Tom

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Invisible wrote:

> On a slightly *less* insane note, you could probably build some kind of 
> PHP thing where you submit photos, it gives each one a unique name, puts 
> it in a folder somewhere, and stores some metadata about it in a MySQL 
> database and gives you a web interface to query it. 

Suppose I don't mind populating the MySQL database with the metadata 
independent of the 'importing' or 'submitting' or 'photo acquiring' 
process whatever it might be.  What pieces would be needed to query the 
database and return path names as hyperlinks.  This would require PHP?

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> Jim Charter wrote:
> 
>> Darren New wrote:
>>
>>> Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm about to write a database-based application for the family 
>>>> holiday pics. Maybe even something web-based on the LAN so that my 
>>>> sister can add the tags when she's bored.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I did one (a while ago) that stored the information in parallel 
>>> ".info" files, and from which you could generate a whole web site to 
>>> put on a CD. You're welcome to it, if you want. :-)
>>
>>
>> Not sure what you are saying but it sounds closer to my purpose. 
>> Parallel .info files?
> 
> 
> vacation/mexico/MomAndDad.jpg will have it's tagging information stored 
> in vacation/mexico/MomAndData.info
> 
> It's a bit clunky, but not too bad, and has the advantage that you can 
> go and reuse the information elsewhere, since it's a trivial format.
> 
> Plus, it has features like "keep this image, but don't include it in the 
> index pages" and so on.  Sorts by date and by name (IIRC), and things 
> like that.
> 
> Also used by a server I built that basically did what Flickr does, only 
> on a small scale. Lets you upload images, comment on them, etc.
> 
Sounds interesting.  I have been playing with Picasa and I think I will 
use it for some things I want to do.  But I have other situations I am 
not sure yet it could handle.  Like zipping and unzipping folders.  It 
seems like once the folder goes away, so does the metadata.  I am 
thinking there are was in which 'clunky' is better.

Post a reply to this message

Jim Charter wrote:
> Sounds interesting.  

http://s3.amazonaws.com/darren/PicEdit.zip

It's a 32K chunk of Tcl and a 700K chunk of jpeg handling binary 
executable for Windows. If you have Tcl and TclLib installed, it should 
just do its thing if you install the image extension.

I'm pretty sure it should work under Linux too.

You might have to futz with the source to configure some of the stuff. 
Run the program without any arguments for help.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Jim Charter wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
> 
>> On a slightly *less* insane note, you could probably build some kind 
>> of PHP thing where you submit photos, it gives each one a unique name, 
>> puts it in a folder somewhere, and stores some metadata about it in a 
>> MySQL database and gives you a web interface to query it. 
> 
> Suppose I don't mind populating the MySQL database with the metadata 
> independent of the 'importing' or 'submitting' or 'photo acquiring' 
> process whatever it might be.  What pieces would be needed to query the 
> database and return path names as hyperlinks.  This would require PHP?

You could do that in a web-based way using essentially any server-side 
scripting technique you like (PHP, ASP, Perl, Haskell CGI...) 
Alternatively, MySQL might have tools that allow you to do this more 
easily; I'm not aware of any, but I haven't looked for one either.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Jim Charter wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
> 
>> On a slightly *less* insane note, you could probably build some kind
>> of PHP thing where you submit photos, it gives each one a unique name,
>> puts it in a folder somewhere, and stores some metadata about it in a
>> MySQL database and gives you a web interface to query it. 

Yes. You also could push the images to the MySQL db, but is there any point?

> Suppose I don't mind populating the MySQL database with the metadata
> independent of the 'importing' or 'submitting' or 'photo acquiring'
> process whatever it might be.  What pieces would be needed to query the
> database and return path names as hyperlinks.  This would require PHP?

Or, like Andrew said, any other server-side scripting language. Plus's
for PHP are that it's easy and that it has native support for talking
with MySQL. Minus for PHP is that it's also easy to create serious,
potential security holes.

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
   http://www.zbxt.net
      aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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Darren New wrote:
> Jim Charter wrote:
> 
>> Sounds interesting.  
> 
> 
> http://s3.amazonaws.com/darren/PicEdit.zip
> 
> It's a 32K chunk of Tcl and a 700K chunk of jpeg handling binary 
> executable for Windows. If you have Tcl and TclLib installed, it should 
> just do its thing if you install the image extension.
> 
> I'm pretty sure it should work under Linux too.
> 
> You might have to futz with the source to configure some of the stuff. 
> Run the program without any arguments for help.
> 
Thanks!  Off to install Tcl

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Jim Charter wrote:
> Thanks!  Off to install Tcl

BTW, apparently Tcl 8.5.0.0 was *just* released by ActiveState. In 
contrast to all earlier versions, this comes as a minimal install along 
with an automated mechanism for accessing the Teapot (the Tcl equivalent 
of CPAN).

You might want to start with 8.4.mumble from ActiveState, which includes 
pretty much everything except the image extension.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> Jim Charter wrote:
> 
>> Thanks!  Off to install Tcl
> 
> 
> BTW, apparently Tcl 8.5.0.0 was *just* released by ActiveState. In 
> contrast to all earlier versions, this comes as a minimal install along 
> with an automated mechanism for accessing the Teapot (the Tcl equivalent 
> of CPAN).
> 
> You might want to start with 8.4.mumble from ActiveState, which includes 
> pretty much everything except the image extension.
> 
thanks for the heads-up, that's in fact what I did, some of the old 
instincts still intact. ;)

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